How do you take your corporate communications department from best in class to world class? A one-size-fits-all development approach would not meet the complex learning needs of our communications team. We needed a structured development platform that facilitates continuous learning in a flexible and adaptable way.
In alignment with our Good Hands® branding, we created Good Work University (GWU) – our department’s development program to improve employee performance and engagement through a deeper understanding of our business.
When building our catalog of development offerings, we intentionally focused on a broad range of learning styles, including experiential, relationship and formal learning opportunities.
As an example, some of the most popular development offerings in our catalog include:
- Quarterly presentations from company experts on strategic business priorities
- An external speaker series where outside presenters offer their perspective on topics such as writing for impact, corporate ethics and presentation training
- Monthly discussions on critical business initiatives and current business results
- Webinars covering trends and skills to help build competencies in key areas
- Quarterly workshops designed to build insurance business acumen and refine writing and storytelling skills
Identifying Solutions for Common Challenges
Here are several solutions corporate communicators should consider when approaching the creation of an education development program. I’m using examples from my department, but hope these can be relevant to any corporate communications department or team.
Challenge: How can we create a succession pipeline to prepare high-potential, high-performing communicators for future roles?
Solution: The Leadership Exploration and Acceleration Program (LEAP), GWU’s staple leadership development program, is designed to take high-potential, high-performing leaders to the next level of performance.
Each year, between 10 and 25 participants engage in a variety of learning experiences over six months, including business acumen workshops, assessments, team projects, mentoring and networking with senior leaders. The expected time commitment is approximately 2-4 days per month (10-20 percent of employees’ time).
LEAP participants are assigned to cross-functional, action-learning teams to address a real business issue. Two senior leaders are assigned to each project and team. These advisors provide feedback, bring a fresh perspective and challenge the teams’ thinking to help them arrive at a strong hypothesis and path to solution.
Along with action learning, LEAP participants focus on building business acumen and leadership skills through interactive workshops, business simulations and presentations. Topics range from inclusive diversity and generational differences to ethics and emotional intelligence.
The program culminates with action learning team presentations to leadership. Exposure to senior leaders and officers through formal meetings and informal networking events and mentoring is an invaluable benefit of the program.
Challenge: How do we help communicators develop a better understanding of the business?
Solution: Learning about other work groups and cross-functional strategic priorities can be a challenge for many teams. Each quarter, GWU invites an executive leader from within the company as a special guest speaker for our department. Senior leaders provide overviews of their work, including strategic priorities and direction. In addition, they share personal experiences and their leadership journey. Attendees depart with an understanding of the presenter’s business role, as well as tips for leadership success.
Challenge: How can we provide communicators with ongoing access to resources and collaboration?
Solution: Corporate Relations created a community specific to development called the “GWU Community.” The GWU community is designed to be a one-stop resource for all things development. In addition, the community promotes collaboration and enables us to have engaging conversations about development opportunities with one another.
The GWU online community places talent development tools and resources at employees’ fingertips. The home page of the community includes upcoming development activities and events. Additional features include internal job postings, the GWU library of development resources, featured webinars, articles and research, leadership development information and Quick Links to the most commonly used development resources.
Specific to the communications function, the CR Hub online community serves as a one-stop source for communication templates, best practices, tools and resources. The CR Hub helps ensure we are using best-in-class tools and resources and delivering communications consistently and effectively across the enterprise.
Challenge: How do we establish a regular schedule of learning and reinforcement without turning people off or creating program fatigue?
Solution: To help sustain an environment of continuous learning, the GWU development program includes a “Credits” component designed to reward employees for taking initiative and participating in development. Credits are awarded for participation in development opportunities that follow the 70/20/10 best practices learning model: 70 percent of development through on-the-job experience, 20 percent through mentoring and 10 percent from training and development opportunities. The program includes:
- Credit values for participation in learning activities
- A simplified, do-it-yourself credit-tracking process
- Quarterly monetary and non-monetary rewards
- A tiered approach for earning rewards
Challenge: How do we get manager buy-in and leadership support?
Solution: Both officer and manager buy-in and support of development are essential to individual career growth. Specific to corporate relations, our senior leaders have added explicit development metrics to our annual performance review process.
Making development an important part of the annual review process in Corporate Relations has yielded positive results. Based on results from a 2015 Allstate employee survey, 91% of corporate relations employees say they are given a real opportunity to improve their skills. Nearly 90% of corporate relations employees say they know the skills they need to be a valuable contributor, and 89% of employees believe they have access to learning opportunities they need to meet their career goals.
Challenge: How do we deliver a development program that is affordable and effective?
Solution: One dedicated team member leads the Good Work University development program. GWU leverages “free” internal resources for many of our development offerings. In addition, we take full advantage of corporate memberships with a variety of communication and public relations organizations. We have a minimal budget each year for external industry speakers, communication workshops and the GWU Credits program.
Development + Performance = World-Class Results
The communications industry is more dynamic today than ever. With the shifting media landscape, emerging channels and digital tools, and the influence of audience preferences and expectations, PR practitioners must evolve continuously or face extinction. Organizations need well-trained and skilled employees to compete. Cultivating a culture of learning where training and development are ingrained in the system will lead to more productive employees equipped to deliver world-class results.
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